Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My Top 4 fav’s:

Flats:
Ernie Ball Cobalt flats for bright clear tone
TI JF344 for mellow, more plunky, fluty tone

Rounds:
Rotosound Swing
DR Fatbeams

I just got some JF344 strings and I put them on the 4003. I like them the best now! Powerful fundamental and lots of interesting sounds! Not mid-scooped at all and the fundamental cuts right through the mix.

So far I like Ernie Cobalt flats the best. But they sound very mid scooped with the toasters.

What are your favorites?

Looks great! No need for those little pieces to go out to the pickguard screws around the neck pick up pocket, but shouldn’t hurt.

Mine is like this.
I have a white pickguard for it too. I just like the clear cuz you can see more wood and burst that way.
Don't need jumper ground wires between pots cuz they are contacting the copper shielding on the pickguard.
Two toasters. Gotta raise the bridge toaster height some more.


IMG ...

Yes

No need to shield the Neck pup cavity or the wire channel from there to control cavity if it is a modern Ric pickup with the grey wire casing.

Just do back of pickguard, control cavity, bridge pup cavity, and connect the bridge pup cavity shielding to control cavity shielding with a strip of ...

Your picture of the pickguard shows that the shielding on the pickguard will contact the pot washers when the pots are installed, so that’s fine. That’s what I was talking about. Mines like that too.

Also, is the copper tape on the back of the pickguard in contact with at least one pot washer? Like you clamped the pot in place over the tape? If not then you have to find another way to ground the copper tape like run a tape jumper strip from shielding to a pot shell.
Also be sure that the copper ...

Is your bridge pup cavity copper shielding connected to your control cavity copper shielding? A minuscule strip over the face between these two cavities gets it done without needing to run anything thru the wire hole. And you really can’t even notice it.

All my basses I pull the neck back to help it along. I don’t care what kind of rods it has. Usually just enough that the strings bottom out onto frets and then I gently snug. Just stop turning the nut when you start to feel any resistance, though the safest rule is 1/8-1/4 turn at most then wait a ...

Why not just route and mount like the 4004?
Is the huge hole necessary anymore since the days of horseshoes are long gone?

John hall said:

“All John Hammel did was remove the nut, glue on a sliver of additional fingerboard, cut a fret slot and add a fret on the lamination, and put the existing nut back.

It's permanent, not removable at all. It also makes the bass just as unadjustable as his Hofner, i.e. no individual ...

So that C64s fretboard must be a tad longer than the C64 fretboards because on the C64 the intonation point for the strings is the ending edge of the fingerboard where the nut begins?

Or, if the board length is the same, then all the c64s frets are compensated differently than on the c64?

The fret has a tang that seats in the nut. So the zero fret is at the end of the fretboard so the strings sit on the zero fret and not the nut material.